Warplanes: October 15, 2001

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The US Air Force has given Boeing and Lockheed Martin contracts to develop the Small Diameter bomb. This will be a 250-pound GPS-guided bomb with an accuracy of about 6 meters (average deviation from target, known as CEP or Circular Error Probable). The idea is that with precision-guidance, a smaller bomb could do the job, and with a smaller bomb, each aircraft could carry more of them. This would allow a smaller Air Force to destroy more targets.--Stephen V Cole